The fate of Fox Ridge State Park may be dependent on input from Eastern students, community members and groups who fight to make their voices heard.

The Fox Ridge Foundation presented Sen. Dale Righter, R-Mattoon, with a petition of more than 3,000 signatures to protest the potential closing of the park at a meeting Friday at Charleston High School.

Fox Ridge has been named as one of 24 parks that may be partially or fully closed to alleviate Illinois budget problems.

Karl Konrad, president of the Fox Ridge Foundation, said he hopes the petitions will assist in making sure the politicians in Springfield do not even consider closing the park.

“All the people who showed up and signed the petition did their part,” Konrad said. “The voices need to be heard.”

The closing of Fox Ridge during the 2003 fiscal year (July 1, 2002 to June 1, 2003) would save the state $255,000.

However, Righter said the money saved from the closing is not a lot compared to the debt of $1 billion facing the Illinois budget.

“Whether or not it would be … a full fiscal year closing or whether or not there won’t be a closing at all depends on how the budget shakes out within the next couple of weeks,” Righter said.

Righter said he would prefer the park to be taken off of the list of potential closing completely rather than close it during the winter months or make any other partial-closing agreement.

“We need to move Fox Ridge off the list and get something else on it,” he said.

The most essential time to protest the closing, he said, is within the next two weeks because legislators may decide whether to close the park within the next three weeks. He said people should continue to sign petitions at the Charleston Marathon and Citgo gas stations as well as What’s Cooking.

Righter said anyone who is opposed to the closing should write him, the Department of Natural Resources and continue petitions.

“People’s voices matter. I think there is a lot of pessimism out there nowadays that one person or a group of people cannot make a difference, and that is not true,” he said.

The threat of the facility closing affects many government facilities, including 16 facilities for department of corrections, several facilities for the mentally ill and developmentally disabled and offices in the department of revenue, Righter said.